My last post on this subject was a full-on rant—fully justified as far as I’m concerned. But the facts of the case might be confusing so this post is entirely devoted to clarifying what just happened when Texas denied two dads’ parental rights.
The beginning of the post focused on Joe Riggs and Jason Hanna. As I said before, Joe and Jason were married in Washington D.C. last year. They can’t get married in their home state of Texas because of a bigoted ban on gay marriage—which has been found unconstitutional already.
They decided to start a family and Charlynn agreed to be a surrogate mom. They obtained two eggs from the same female donor—so their sons are half-brothers. Each dad’s sperm was used to fertilize one of the eggs. Charlynn—who is not their biological mother—carried the boys to term and gave birth to Lucas and Ethan in April.
Because of Texas’ reactionary state laws, neither dad, despite being a biological father to one of the boys, is on their birth certificates.
So they petitioned the family court in Tarrant County, Texas, where they live. In an interview with Sirius XM News, Hanna outlined the basis for the court case that’s conclusion was so bigoted and shocking: “So our attorney followed the letter of the law. We petitioned the court. We had DNA testing there [in court] and petitioned the judge to ultimately remove the surrogate mother from the birth certificate, who has no biological ties to the boys. We would like each biological dad to be placed on the birth certificate of our own son, and then ultimately proceed to the second-parent adoption. The entire petition was denied.”
The judge—saying she was “strictly following the law,” denied their petition for co-adoption AND for changing the boys’ birth certificates. Essentially the judge has denied the biological dad’s right to be on the birth certificate as well as also denying the two fathers the right to adopt their non-biological sons. In reality, she issued a bigoted, hate-based decision in a family court that purports to always act in the best interest of the child. And in doing so, she continued the legal inequality that directly affects LGBTQ people across this country, not only in parenting decisions but in many aspects of life.
